Pages

Saturday, 14 February 2015

It
has been quite awhile since my last post for Christmas as I have been so busy after
that.

Every
year, around this period, I’m so ready for all things to welcome Chinese New
Year. I have started to get organised since
January by listing down things that I need for spring cleaning.

I
would survey the house by looking around the rooms, closet, desk, storage
cabinet, etc and take inventory on what need to be cleaned, de-cluttered and also
what are those stuff that need to get rid.This is also a time that I would check and replace the beddings,
upholstery, furniture, etc.I would also
schedule some dates and assign everyone in family a task to a job as I think I
should not be doing all these alone.

Look!
Look! Look at my balcony. Finally, I had
made a point to do something to it. I had
beautified the corner by adding some plants and displays to it. Now it has become a little home garden of mine
and I could really feel that Spring is coming! J

Ok
ok ok… Pardon me. I know I’m supposed to share what I have been
baking lately and not about my spring cleaning. But I really couldn’t bear not to share what I
had done to my balcony for this year’s spring cleaning :P

Ok! How about this? J

Can you tell they are pineapples and not porcupines? When my good friend commented these porcupines are cute and my response was “huh! What? Porcupines?” :D

I
must say that Chinese New Year is incomplete without pineapples cookie. It is a festive cookie that all families wouldn’t
want to miss it.Pineapple cookie has become
a must for all families and also one of the gift items for Chinese New Year. For
this reason, I’m making it and guess it will become one of a "must bake" cookie for CNY.

This
year, instead of doing the usual Taiwan style of pineapple cookie, I decided to
try this new recipe from Butter, Flour & Me. Apparently,
my family and relatives prefer this to the one I made for
last year.

INGREDIENTS

(translated)

125g Unsalted Butter

50g Icing Sugar

25g Egg Yolk

½
tbsp Condensed Milk

220gPlain flour

35g Egg Yolk Powder (I
used Pillsbury Custard Powder)

2
tbsp Milk Powder (I
used Anlene)

Pineapple
fillings

I’m
using the same recipe, which I learnt from a home based baking teacher last
year. My friends and I made the fillings
about 1 month ahead and store in an air-tight container in room
temperature. For enclosed tarts, the
pineapple jam has to be completely dry and sticky. This is the reason we are making it ahead and
left in room temperature for few weeks before used.

METHOD

1.Preheat
the oven at 170°C and line the tray with baking paper.

2.Beat
butter and icing sugar together until the colour turn pale.

3.Add egg
yolks and follow by condense milk. Mix well.

4.Sift
flour together with milk powder and custard powered into the butter mixture.

6.Roll
dough into a ball of 12g and roll pineapple into a ball of 10g. Flatten
the dough and wrap it with pineapple fillings.

7.Roll
the dough with pineapple filling to slightly oval shape. Use this type of scissor to cut the surface
of the dough in layer of sharp edges.

Friday, 13 February 2015

It
is known by everybody that Earl Grey Tea gives out a very rich flavour to cookie
and I was thinking it would be wonderful if the cookie could give out the
flavour of Oolong Tea. So I decided to
give it a try. But I was pretty
disappointed as the cookies turn out to be flavourless. There wasn’t any slightest flavour of Oolong
Tea at all L

However,
the consolation part is that the texture of the cookie is crunchy; not so
buttery and it goes really well with cup of Lipton Tea J.

But if you will to ask me whether I will bake
this again for Chinese New Year?My reply
to you is… I doubt I will.

The
recipe yields 30 pcs. But I think I only
managed to pipe out less than 15 pcs and by evening, the cookies were all gone.

INGREDIENTS

A.

150g
Butter

100g
Icing Sugar

B.

20g
Egg Yolk

C.

60g
Ground Almond

200g Cake Flour

D.

50g Milk

5g Earl Grey Tea Leave

(I replaced with Oolong because nobody drinks Earl Grey Tea at
home)

METHOD

(1)Softened
the butter and cut into dices. Place
ingredients C in a same bowl.

(8)Remove
the dough. Sprinkle some flour over
workspace and roll the dough out to a thickness of 0.5cm. Use cookie mould cutter to cut out the dough
and place them onto a baking tray. Instead
of using cookie mould cutter, I pipe out the batter onto the baking tray.

(9)Bake
in oven for 20 mintues. Remove from oven
and set aside to cool.

This recipe is taken from the
cookbook – The Secret of Cookies 告诉你饼干的密秘。
This cookbook is a Christmas gift from my elder boy. He said the cookbook is value for money as it
contains so many recipes at the price of less than S$20. Ha ha ha!

I
hardly make cookies because my family prefers cakes to cookies.The only time that I baked a lot of cookies
is during the Chinese New Year period and it is also the only time that I will
eat a lot of them.

This
is one of the cookies that I will bake again for Chinese New Year. They are so well received by my children. Seaweed and meat floss are great
combination. These sweet-savoury cookies
are crunchy, taste and ADDICTIVE!

This recipe is taken from the
cookbook – The Secret of Cookies 告诉你饼干的密秘。

HAPPY
BAKING!

INGREDIENTS

A.

75g Butter

10g Caster sugar

3g
Salt

B.

50g Whole Egg

C.

150g
Cake Flour

3g Baking powder

D.

5g Seaweed
sheets

20g
meat floss

METHOD

(1)Softened
butter and cut into dices. Beat with
whole egg.

(2)Place
ingredients C into a same container. Cut
Ingredients D into small pieces.

(3)Line
a baking tray with non-stick baking mat.
Preheat the oven to 170˚C.

(4)Place
Ingredient A into mixing bowl. Using a
whisk, beat the mixture till light and fluffy.
Add Ingredients B in 3-4 batches and beat well after each addition.

(5)Sift
in Ingredients C. Using a spatula, press
down till the mixture is well-combine.
Add in ingredient D, keep pressing the mixture with your hand and a
scraper till a dough is formed.

Tuesday, 30 December 2014

You know what? My family would never live through a Christmas without ham and this year I decided to make my own ham.

I learn to make this ham from a baking session with few friends from church. We had a great fun baking ham together and we had baked about 15 hams on that day.Every one of us got to bring home a ham.

My hubby and children gave a thumb up after eating the ham and that inspired me to bake my own ham for this Christmas.

A
baked ham isn’t ham without the glaze.
Look! The ham looks so gorgeous
after the glazing.

One
of our favourite ways to eat ham is to go with baked vegetables. The baked veggies, especially the capsicums(bell peppers) and
carrots , bring out the sweet flavour that goes beautifully with the ham. Not forgetting the mango
sauce. The pureed mangos and honey
mustard blended with brown sugar and lemon juice make a delicious
fruit-flavoured sauce to go along with the baked ham.

The
best ham I ever had for this Christmas!

I’m
contributing this recipe to Cook and
Celebrate Christmas 2014 and I hope you will like the recipe.

HAM

Ingredient

1
kg Half cooked ham

400g Coke Cole

1
can Beer

2
tsp Peppercorn

1
pce Bay leaves

2
small Onions

Method

(1)Mix
the ingredients together in a pot and boil it for ½ hour. Do not discard the stock.

(2)When ham is cooled, score ham. Scoring the ham lets the glaze penetrate into
the meat.

HONEY & BLACK PEPPER GLAZE

Ingredient

1
tbsp Orange Marmalade

1
tsp Honey mustard

1
clove Garlic chopped

1
tbsp Brown sugar

½
tsp Black pepper

1
tsp Worcester sauce

1
tbsp Black pepper sauce

Method

Mix
all ingredients and rub onto the cooked & scored ham and cover with foil
and bake for 10 mins at 180ºC.

HONEY GLAZE (2nd layer of glaze)

Ingredient

100g Stock from boiling the ham.

40g Honey

20g Brown sugar

1
tbsp Chopped onion

1
tsp Black pepper

½
tbsp Black pepper sauce

Method

(1)Mix
the ingredients. Cook the ingredient
until it is thick.

(2)Glaze
the ham and put it back to oven and bake for 10mins.

(3)Remove
from oven and glaze the balance sauce and bake for another 5 mins.

BAKED VEGETABLES

Ingredient

1
tbsp Honey Mustard

1
tbsp Black Pepper

1
tbsp Chopped garlic

1
tbsp Salt

3
tbsp Olive oil

4
large White onions, cut into large
wedges

2
large Potato, cut into wedges

Method

(1)Mix
the ingredient (except the olive oil) and toss the vegetables together in a
baking dish. Before putting it to the
oven, drizzles olive oil over it.

(2)Bake the vegetable until they are soft.

MANGO SAUCE

Ingredient

2
tbsp Brown sugar

¾
cup Pureed from 2 small mangoes

3
tbsp Honey Mustard

1
tbsp Lemon juice

½
tsp Worcester sauce (optional)

Method

(1)Mix
the ingredient and heat it warm.

(2)Arrange
the baked vegetable around the ham and served it with mango sauce.

Monday, 22 December 2014

Year end is the time where friends get together, and catching up with old friends is
always a great joy.

Lately
I’ve been talking, laughing and sharing life with some really great friends for
over 3 decades. We have the opportunity
to catch up on what have been happening and reminiscing on the time we spent
together in school, reliving old jokes, sharing our dreams and future. Encouraging and support each other
emotionally and we even get some really helpful advice from our chat too!

One
of the things I always tell my friends after meeting with them is that we mustn’t
leave it so long next time… I’m so glad that we invariably do it though. It is tough finding the time in the middle of
busy lives.But often it only takes 1
person’s crazy plan to make occasion happened.

Yes. This was why I’ve been quiet for a period of
time since my last post. I’m now back
again and ready for Christmas recipe!!

How
about Juicy Chinese Barbecued Pork, something different for this Christmas? J

Here’s
another recipe for Char Siew which I have made recently. The seasoning is good. It is sweet and savoury finger licking. This is the 1st time I’m using pork
butt to make char siu. The meat turned
out to be bit dry but it is healthier choice of meat. The belly is of course the most tastier.

The
recipe is adapted from one of Christine Ho’s cookbook – Easy Recipes.

INGREDIENTS

700g Pork butt

4
tbsp Lee Kum Kee Char Siu
Sauce

1
tbsp Honey, or to taste

SEASONINGS

1
tbsp Shaoxing wine

2
tsp Freshly grated ginger
juice

1
tbsp Light soy sauce

METHOD

(1)Rinse
and cut the pork into strips about 2” to 2.5” in width. Marinate pork with the char siu sauce and
seasonings. Cover and chill in
fridge. For a better result, marinate
for at least 6 hours or overnight.

(2)Preheat
oven to 200˚C.
Remove the pork from the fridge and rest in room temperature for 10
minutes. Transfer into a oven proof ceramic
tray (I used
non-stick baking pan for easy washing later) with all the
marinate. Cover with foil. Bake for 50 minutes. Remove the foil, lower the heat to 100ºC. From now on, keep an eye on it. Spoon the sauce over the pork every 10
minutes to keep moist. Turn to the other
side and continue baking. Keep basting
sauce over the port keep moist (This is the key to baking succulent and juicy BBQ pork).
When the sauce becomes less and thickens, brush the pork with honey and
bake for 10 minutes (Do not brush any honey too early or the pork will be burnt
easily. Just apply when the pork is
nearly done).
The pork will gradually turn red in colour. When you are satisfied with the colour and
the consistency of the gravy, it is done.

(3)Remove
from the oven and let the pork rest for 10 minutes. When it cools down a bit, slice and serves
with the gravy.

Friday, 14 November 2014

Just
before I went for my Penang trip, I had the pleasure to meet up with 2 bloggers
(Zoe
and Diana) whom I have known through blogging over a
year. The meeting was so fun. We had a
great time chatting and laughing, and the sharing we had was so inspiring.

There’s
something wonderful about meeting someone in real life that you’ve already
known online. It’s just like an instant friend. Do you agree with me? J

Ok
now. Look at this dish!

Did it make you salivate?

I
love this chicken recipe from Bobby Flay. The ingredients used for marinate is so
simple but it has tons of flavour that would sure delight you.

HAPPY COOKING!

INGREDIENTS

(For
4 servings)

Grilled
Chicken

4
bone-in, skin-on chicken breast, about 6 ounces each

4
bone-inch chicken thights

Kosher
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Canola
Oil

Bacon
Mustard Vinaigrette

1
tbsp Canola Oil

½
pound Applewood smoked slab bacon,
cut into lardon

¼
cup Red wine vinegar

1
heap tbsp Dijon Mustard

1
tsp Clover Honey

2
tbspExtra Virgin Olive Oil

Kosher salt and freshly
ground black pepper

Parsley leaves, for
garnish

METHOD

Grilled
Chicken

Season
the chicken well on both sides with salt and pepper. Place on a baking sheet, cover and
refrigerate for 1 hour. Remove the
chicken from the refrigerator 30mins before grilling and pat dry with paper
towels.

Preheat
a grill or grill pan over medium heat.
Brush the chicken with canola oil.
Place the thighs/breasts on the grill.
Grill pan skin side down and cook slowly, until the skin is crisp and
renders fat and pulls away from the grates easily, about 6 minutes.

Turn
over and continue cooking until bottom of the breast is golden brown and
thighs/breasts are just cooked through.
Remove to a plate and let it rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Bacon Mustard Vinaigrette

Heat the canola oil in a medium
sauté pan over medium heat, add the bacon and slowly cook until the bacon is
golden brown and crisp and the fat has rendered. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon to a
plate lined with paper towels.

Heat the rendered fat in the sauté
pan over low heat. Whisk in the vinegar,
mustard and honey and cook for 30 seconds, to warm through.

Whisk in the olive oil and season
with salt and pepper. Add the bacon to
the pan. Serve a breast and thigh on
each plate and lightly spoon the sauce over, garnish with parsley leaves.